The latest round of Nintendo Switch 2 rumors suggest the upcoming, tentatively-named console may have entered mass production.

That's according to MST Financial senior analyst David Gibson, who took to X / Twitter to post something interesting about Nintendo's primary assembler, Hosiden.

"No-one seems to have noticed the Nintendo assembler- Hosiden is spending ¥2bn on production equipment and ¥1bn on automation in FY3/25 for its major customer in amusement (Nintendo)," writes Gibson. He adds that he expects "Sept news and March 2025 release for [the] next device."

The graph included in the post indeed shows an uptick in automation spending, as well as the addition of spending on production equipment and a new Vietnam-based factory. If anything, it shows that some kind of hardware manufacturing could be underway at the Osaka-based assembler.

In related news, spotted by VGC, industry leaker Nate the Hate took to the comments section of a post on the r/GamingLeaksandRumours subreddit regarding Hosiden's uptick in spending. Nate simply comments that Nintendo Switch 2 "has backwards compatibility support."

This isn't the first time we've heard about the possibility of backwards compatibility support on Nintendo's succeeding console. Last year, a Nintendo executive hinted at Nintendo Switch 2 backwards compatibility during an annual shareholder Q&A session.

At the time, they had said: "with the Nintendo Switch, we can directly connect with various customers through Nintendo Accounts.

"In the transition from Nintendo Switch to the next-generation console. We will do our best to make the transition smooth for our customers."

While not outright confirming backwards compatibility for Nintendo Switch 2, the notion of a more seamless transition (at least when compared to folks making the jump from the disc-based Wii U to the cartridge-compatible Switch) may indicate that things like Nintendo Switch games and Nintendo Switch Online accounts could carry over to the new console.

Furthermore, Nintendo has traditionally broadcast a Nintendo Direct presentation in September every year. Should that precedent hold true this year, we might finally see an official announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2 this month.

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard just got a brand-new gameplay demo exploring several new locations and the mage class.

As part of IGN's month-long coverage of The Veilguard, which was teased last month through BioWare's roadmap, fans were treated to 22 minutes of gameplay guided by the game's director Corinne Busche, and creative director John Epler.

After sharing a series of screenshots last week, the demo started by giving us our first in-game look at the player's base of operations in the Fade, The Lighthouse, which is owned by Solas.

As Rook, the playable protagonist, walks around the base the area looks huge and you can see there are many places you can explore, for instance, the seven companion bedrooms. 

Each has their personal space in The Lighthouse, and from what the developers teased, these places can be upgraded as you progress through the story to fit the respective character's personality. 

BioWare also confirmed that the game will feature visual, glowing alerts that will let players know when a companion is ready to speak with them, so there's no worry about missing optional dialogue. 

As for the rest of the demo, the directors guide us through the beginning of a quest for one of your companions, and Grey Warden, Davrin; along with his adorable griffon Assan. 

After accepting the quest, the player heads to the Crossroads - an important place in Solas' history where he originally began his plans against the Elven Gods, as well as a place the developers said players can spend more time exploring and learning about moments in Solas' history. 

Although this is Davrin's personal quest, he has proceeded to the quest location on his own because, as the developers put it, it gives the companions more autonomy in the story. 

We also got a decent look at a new party combat, specifically with the mage class and the orb and dagger weapon duo. The developers compared this class to Dragon Age: Inquisition's Knight Enchanter specialization, which allows the player to stack elemental damage on an enemy, and then use the dagger to detonate the magic.

BioWare also demonstrated the new skill combinations that can be used alongside your companions, which can deal greater damage to enemies. Since there are several classes in the game, players will be able to experiment by combining mage abilities with Harding's rogue skills, for example. 

The developer also confirmed that when players are knocked down in battle, companions will be able to revive them with the click of a button.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard launches on October 31 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC. 

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Following poor sales and a drastically low player count, live-service PS5 multiplayer hero shooter Concord is being taken offline just two weeks after its full launch.

The news was confirmed by Concord game director Ryan Ellis via an official PlayStation Blog post. Ellis confirms that the game will be taken offline on September 6, 2024. That gives you just three days, at the time of writing, to squeeze in some play time if you happen to own the game.

In the post, Ellis writes: "We have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.

"While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method."

The post goes on to detail how players who purchased Concord on PC via Steam or the Epic Games Store can obtain their own refunds, as well as those who bought the game through various other retailers.

It's nothing short of disastrous news for Sony Interactive Entertainment, the game's publisher, and its plans to produce more live-service games, as well as Concord developer Firewalk Studios, naturally. The game, which the developer confirmed took a frankly absurd eight years to make. The team had also stated it was "strapped in and ready to push [the game] for years to come."

While Concord's budget and sales numbers remain unconfirmed, a report by Forbes' Paul Tassi suggests the game had made approximately $1 million, selling an abysmal 25,000 copies. With Tassi also stating that budget estimates are "around the $100 million mark," that's a pretty tragic return on investment.

It remains to be seen as to whether or not Concord will make a comeback; the wording of the PlayStation Blog post, particularly the desire to "explore options," implies there may be a future for the game yet. However, given its Steam all-time peak concurrent player count of 697 (according to SteamDB), it seems like Concord and its players don't have much of a future to look forward to.

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Funcom has said that bringing Dune Awakening to Xbox Series S will be a "challenge".

The massively multiplayer online game (MMO) inspired by the best-selling Dune book series by Frank Herbert is set to launch on PC in early 2025, but Funcom has yet to share a release window for the console versions.

According to Dune Awakening's chief product officer Scott Junior, one of the main reasons for this is so Funcom can spend more time optimizing the Xbox version alongside the PlayStation 5 version, more specifically, the lower-powered Xbox Series S.

"So, it's one of the reasons we're coming out on PC first," Junior said in a recent interview with VG247. "There's a lot of optimisations we need to do before we release on the Xbox. But yeah, Xbox Series S is a challenge."

Junior added later on in the discussion that work is progressing and that those who own an Xbox Series S and are looking to play Dune Awakening on the console will be able to do so.

"Yeah, yeah it does," the developer said when asked if it will run on low-performance machines despite the optimizations. "But it will still perform well on hardware that's years and years old. We'll be able to do it!"

Dune Awakening is built in Unreal Engine 5 and recently received a brand-new 30-minute gameplay trailer at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 where we got our first look at the game's in-depth character creator as well as the open world of Arrakis.

Players will be able to join a guild and align with House Harkonnen or Atreides, and "clash for the precious spice in dynamic guild versus guild battles involving a range of vehicles, tech, and specialized combatants."

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Ballistic Moon is the latest studio in the games industry to make job cuts, one month before the launch of the Until Dawn remake.

As reported by Eurogamer, it was first believed that two staff members at the studio had been laid off. Now, at least 11 developers have shared news of their redundancies and are now looking for work.

"Like many others in this wonderful but turbulent industry, I am sadly being made redundant from my role as a Junior Game Designer at Ballistic Moon," said Cassy Cornish on LinkedIn.

Another former developer, Harry Williams, wrote, "After two ex[c]iting years working on the wonderful Until Dawn 2024 at Ballistic Moon, I am unfortunately being made redundant as a Technical Designer. 

"I've loved working with everyone at BM and hope I cross paths with members of that family in future projects!"

It's unclear at this time if the number of employees affected is more than the 11 currently confirmed.

Ballistic Moon has since verified the layoffs in a new statement on Linkedin, explaining that due to "complex challenges" the games industry continues to face, it decided to "significantly scale down" the team to secure the studio's future.

"As the games industry continues to face complex challenges, we at Ballistic Moon are confronted with some difficult realities," the statement reads. "It is with deep regret and a heavy heart that we must make the tough decision to significantly scale down our team to secure the future of our studio. This comes after our development of Until Dawn for PS5 and PC.

"We want to express our sincere gratitude to every team member for their hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment to Ballistic Moon. Saying goodbye to such a talented and passionate group of people is incredibly difficult, and we are profoundly sorry for the impact this restructuring will have on our employees and their families.

"As we navigate this transition, Ballistic Moon remains focused on supporting the launch of Until Dawn and is committed to exploring new opportunities and collaborations for the future."

Ballistic Moon's Until Dawn remake is set for an October 4 release and is an enhanced version of the 2015 interactive horror game from Supermassive Games featuring overhauled visuals rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5, as well as other major improvements.

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Rocksteady Studios has reportedly been hit by layoffs following the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's low sales. 

That's according to Eurogamer, who first reported that the studio's quality assurance (QA) department has been cut in half over the past month, bringing the size of the team down from 33 members to 15.

The reasoning behind the layoffs is being cited as "restructuring", with other job cuts expanding outside of the QA department as well, including several members of junior staff and some who have been at the studio for more than five years.

Staff who wished to remain anonymous also told the publication that the job losses - including developers with "specialized knowledge" - are also affecting the Rocksteady staff at large, as employees will now be required to handle their work on top of their own.

The same sources also said that Rocksteady's senior management has expressed that product quality will now suffer following the layoffs.

Last month, Warner Bros. reported that its gaming revenue had fallen by 41% year-on-year due to the poor performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which cost $200 million to make.

Warner Bros. Discovery's chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said in an earnings call that the DC supervillain shooter had "fallen short of our expectations". 

Although Suicide Squad underperformed, Rocksteady is still working on the game's season pass which will offer additional post-launch content following its early February release. 

The first of these updates arrived in March with Season One, with the debut of The Joker as a playable character, followed by Season Two in July, which introduced Mrs. Freeze to the roster, a new map, and two episodes titled Frozen Hearts and Winter. The studio also has plans for seasons three and four.

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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has admitted to making some bad calls in his career but says he has no regrets about not making Destiny and Guitar Hero platform exclusives.

Speaking at the "Story Time with Phil Spencer" panel at PAX West over the weekend, the Xbox CEO of gaming touched on Bungie's 2014 shooter and Microsoft's decision to not sign the game as an Xbox exclusive (via Eurogamer).

Spencer also admitted that, initially, Destiny didn't click with him until the game's first expansion, The House of Wolves, and that he didn't think it was "going to work" before it was eventually published by Activision.

"There are so many mixed emotions and stories for me around Destiny," Spencer reminisced.

"Do we want to sign this?’ We ended up not signing Destiny. It obviously went with Activision, and to seeing what it grew into, like from a business kind of Xbox standpoint, I can look at it [as] it's just a really interesting journey in terms of what [Bungie] built."

He added, "Obviously, Bungie was part of Microsoft when I started at Xbox, and I shared a floor with Alex Seropian [and] Jason Jones [Bungie's co-founders] in the building that we were in Redmond. I learned a ton from just being around Bungie."

"I've passed on some of the worst… like, made some of the worst game-choice decisions," he said, before discussing the original pitch of Guitar Hero.

"An interesting one is when this team came down to Redmond and Alex Rigopulos, he pitches a game where they're actually going to make plastic guitars, and they're going to plug into consoles, and then they're going to sell tracks where you're going to play Simon on this guitar and I'm like, really? Do we really think that's going to work? 

"I hear that turned into a pretty good game," he joked.

However, despite his decision to not sign two games that have since proved to be massive successes, Spencer explained that he doesn't have any regrets and tries to "look forward and be positive about the things that we are doing."

"I'm not a regrets-type person," he said. "Maybe that's a fault of mine, but I passed on so many games... I just like to celebrate what the team [at Bungie] has done. I mean, it's incredible."

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If you own one or more of the iOS ports of recent Resident Evil titles, then you might just want to avoid updating them again. Developer Capcom has added an online check-in requirement to these apps, meaning they now require an internet connection to play.

The news, spotted by Eurogamer, was initially posted as a PSA to the r/iosgaming subreddit. The post is accompanied by an image showing that Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Resident Evil Village, and Resident Evil 4's iOS ports are ready for an update. For all three, the update details state: "Due to changes to the startup process, an internet connection is now required when starting this app."

Quite understandably, the news has not gone down well with players on the subreddit, with many expressing a desire to seek a refund from Apple. However, some note that the backlash likely won't be too severe following the poor sales of these Resident Evil iOS ports.

You might argue that because an internet connection is only required on startup, this update isn't that big of a deal. But that's kind of missing the forest for the trees. Surely, the entire point of having mobile ports of these games is to offer the option of playing them on the go without restriction. Depending on where in the world folks are, an internet connection isn't always a guarantee, even if it's just for a few seconds at startup.

It remains to be seen whether or not Capcom will revert to this requirement following the backlash. But as stated earlier, given the lackluster sales of these iOS ports, it seems more likely that the change is here to stay. Which, honestly, makes the requirement that much more baffling in the first place.

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Capcom veteran Hideaki Itsuno is leaving the company after three decades to develop a new game.

The Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma series director took to X / Twitter to share a statement regarding his leaving the company. Itsuno thanks fans for their long-term support and confirms that he'll be getting to work on a brand new game outside of Capcom.

"From September, I will start developing a new game in a new environment," wrote Itsuno. "I hope to create fun, beautiful games that are as memorable as, or even more memorable than, the ones I have created so far. Please stay tuned for my next creation!"

Itsuno's most recent role in a directorial role was for this year's Dragon's Dogma 2. Despite the game's poor optimization and performance at launch, it would go on to ship over 2.5 million units within its first two weeks on sale. The game also set a record concurrent player count for a Capcom game on Steam on its launch day.

While Itsuno will be known mostly for his work on the Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma series, he also acted as director for some of Capcom's best fighting games including Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Star Gladiator, Project Justice and the Power Stone series. Some of these names may sound familiar to you, as they'll be appearing on the recently-announced Capcom Fighting Collection 2 which is currently slated to launch sometime in 2025.

You can of course tide yourself over until then with the soon-to-launch Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, which is due to release on September 12 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam.

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If you were hoping for a physical release for the upcoming Nintendo Switch version of Yakuza Kiwami, then we've got some bad news.

As spotted by Nintendo Everything, the official Japanese X / Twitter account of developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio posted that the game will be "download distribution only" (translated from Japanese with X / Twitter's in-built translation tool). The developer's English account posted soon after that Yakuza Kiwami will be available "on the Nintendo eShop", without mention of a physical release.

This is definitely a shame for those hoping to add Yakuza Kiwami to their physical Switch collection. But there is some good news in that the highly-praised remake, which is launching on October 25 for Nintendo Switch, will be priced at around $19.99 / £14.99. If you've yet to properly dive into the Yakuza / Like a Dragon franchise, this is an ideal starting point and a very reasonable price to boot.

Yakuza Kiwami is a remake of the original Yakuza title which came out for the PlayStation 2 all the way back in 2005. The game introduced the world to protagonist Kazuma Kiryu - an officer of the Tojo Clan criminal organization - whom in this initial outing takes the fall for his boss's murder. After a decade in jail, Kiryu must acclimate to modern life in the city of Kamurocho and save the clan from a dark fate.

While certainly rough around the edges, the very first Yakuza title introduced the world to its gripping and heavily political storytelling, balanced out with a gut-busting sense of humor and a wide range of incredible and memorable characters that appear in the series to this day. Having no physical release on Nintendo Switch is definitely a bummer, but we highly recommend the game nonetheless. Especially if you can work your way up to modern releases such as the brilliant Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

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If you're as old as me, there's a decent chance you grew up with a PS1 and a particularly revered 3D platformer: Croc: Legend of the Gobbos.

Now 27 years on from the game's 1997 release, original developer Argonaut has been resurrected, and its first project back from the dead is a remaster of the legendary PS1 title.

The initial teaser trailer shows that the Croc: Legend of the Gobbos remaster is looking much smoother with a higher framerate and resolution. A press release for the remaster seen by Eurogamer states that it's coming to PC and consoles sometime in 2024, and will feature extras such as the 'Crocipedia' which is being described as an "extensive and meticulously curated digital museum". That means you can expect concept art, interviews and the like.

There isn't much else that can be gleaned from the teaser trailer outside of a few short segments of gameplay, but the updates to the game via the remaster appear to be promising. Hopefully, there will also be options for improved control schemes, as the original game's tank-like controls certainly haven't aged well and were pretty ill-suited for a 3D platformer to begin with.

And if you're wondering why this remaster in particular is a bigger deal than usual, a huge part of that is Croc's developer. Argonaut, while founded in the 1980s, really established itself in the following decade on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The developer worked with Nintendo to create the original Star Fox game in 1993. 

And while Star Fox's blocky look is severely dated by today's standards, it was nothing  short of phenomenal for a home console release to look like this in the early 90s. Keep in mind this was before the PS1 was on most folks' radar, too. Argonaut followed up in 1994 with Stunt Race FX, another impressive 3D showcase for the 16-bit console. If that pedigree is any indication of what Argonaut could be capable of now that it's reopened its doors, we'll be keeping a keen eye on the developer.

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Nintendo has officially ended repair support for the New Nintendo 3DS.

In a new X / Twitter post shared today to the Japanese Nintendo account, which has been machine translated, the company announced that repair services for the New Nintendo 3DS have now ended due to a lack of parts required to maintain the handheld console.

Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that when replacement parts for the Nintendo 2DS, Nintendo 2DS XL, and the New Nintendo 3DS were gone, its repair services would end. 

Support for the Nintendo 3DS XL and standard Nintendo 3DS has already ended and now it's the New Nintendo 3DS's turn to lose the service. 

"We are now discontinuing repair services for the Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, and New Nintendo 3DS LL systems as the period for retaining repair parts as stipulated in the repair service regulations for each product has expired," Nintendo explained in a support post at the time.

"As a result, we will end repair services for the Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, and New Nintendo 3DS LL systems as soon as our current stock of parts is depleted."

The company has now amended the post with an updated notice, which reads: "We have run out of parts necessary for repairs, so we are no longer accepting repairs for the New Nintendo 3DS system."

The only consoles part of the DS family that are still available for repair support are the Nintendo 2DS and Nintendo 2DS XL, but given the notice it's likely services will come to an end for both soon.

In July, Nintendo also ended repair support for the Wii U, explaining that it had "run out of parts necessary for repairs" and "will no longer be accepting repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals".

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